Officer testifies finding bloody knife blade in Smith murder

Nancy Flake

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, June 14, 2010

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Officer testifies finding bloody knife blade in Smith murder

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After being told by several witnesses that Roy George Thomas stabbed Robert Lee Smith after an argument in a Conroe apartment, a Conroe police officer found what he believed was the blood-covered knife, he testified during Thomas’ murder trial Tuesday.

Thomas, 22, is on trial for the murder of Smith, who died of his injuries a month after the May 12 stabbing at an apartment in the 1900 block of Willowbend Street. Police originally arrested Thomas for aggravated assault, but the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office upgraded the charge when Smith, 20, died.

Still being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $100,000 bond, Thomas faces five to 99 years or life in prison if he is convicted by jurors who were selected Monday in the 359th state District Court of Judge Kathleen Hamilton.

When Conroe Police Officer Derrick Sullivan responded to the Willowbend Apartments, he saw a “large group of people in the parking lot,” he said. “Some were upset, some were excited. At that point, I knew something wasn’t right.”

He spoke with three people, who told Sullivan they had seen Thomas and Smith arguing over a cell phone, Sullivan said. Thomas then allegedly left to retrieve the knife, came back to the apartment and allegedly stabbed Smith, the witnesses told him.

Another witness said Thomas pulled another smaller pocketknife on him, Sullivan testified during questioning by District Attorney Brett Ligon.

Sullivan then went upstairs, where witnesses told him they had seen Thomas run, and started knocking on doors. He found Thomas in one of the apartments, already detained face down on the floor by another officer.

Sullivan located the smaller pocketknife in one of Thomas’ pockets.

“Do you believe that this knife by itself is capable of inflicting death?” Ligon asked as he showed the pocketknife to Sullivan and jurors.

“Yes, sir,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan then performed a perimeter search around the apartment complex and found a 6-inch metal knife blade, without a handle, on the ground in the parking lot.

“It was completely covered in a red substance that appeared to be blood,” Sullivan said.

Traces of a red substance still could be seen on the blade when it was shown to jurors.

Defense attorney Donald Limbrick asked Sullivan how he would explain a weapon found in the area a day or two after the stabbing.

“It could have been placed there,” Sullivan said. “I can’t say for sure.”